Scanning Kodachrome

[leica dream]

I am considering embarking on scanning my slide collection (probably COOLSCAN yet to be purchased), but someone has told me that scanners in general do not reproduce Kodachrome accurately. Most slides are Agfa, but I have not heard any adverse comments about scanning those.
Has anyone any experience/advice about this?
Thanks in anticipation
Richard

[MPJMP]

The Nikon Coolscan scanners have a special feature specifically for scanning Kodachrome. I have scanned dozens of Kodachrome slides of various vinatge on my Coolscan V and they all have come out stunning.

[andybarton]

What is that special feature?

[MPJMP]

Originally Posted by andybarton

What is that special feature?

In the supplied Nikon Scan software there is a pull-down menu for selecting the film type you are scanning. IIRC, the available options are Negative, Positive, and Kodachrome.

FWIW, before I got my Coolscan V I used a run-of-the-mill Epson flatbed scanner that would also scan film. It also did a great job with Kodachrome.

[leica dream]

Thanks for that input it is very reassuring...........I feel a winter project coming on. My slide projector is an Aldis 505, just about 50 years old with one of those valve-like 500watt lamps. I dread to think what the cost of a bulb would be these days - if they are still available. The whole unit produces so much heat one cannot touch it for several minutes after use, and of course, those transparencies not mounted between glass kink out of focus. Otherwise it is a super piece of equipment.................but rather outdated I fear.
Richard

[KM-25]

I use a Nikon 9000ED since I scan Kodachrome from my XPan too, it works great. I use the glass holder on the panos, regular on the 24x36mm.

I have the most recent version of Silverfast Ai which really works well with Kodachrome. Silverfast as a really good grasp of maxing out dynamic range. I am also looking at getting a wet mounting kit, the results I have seen it come up with in the 9000ED is about 90% of a good drum scan.

I love the Kodachrome scans I am getting from this setup...

[leica dream]

I have looked at the 9000 especially for my older non 35mm negatives, but I think the cost cannot be justified for the relatively small volume of old non 35mm stuff. I'll probably get those scanned professionally at somewhere like Peak Processing.
Any ideas about the best (cheapest) source of Nikon scanners in the UK?
Richard

[gyoung]

Originally Posted by MPJMP

In the supplied Nikon Scan software there is a pull-down menu for selecting the film type you are scanning. IIRC, the available options are Negative, Positive, and Kodachrome.

FWIW, before I got my Coolscan V I used a run-of-the-mill Epson flatbed scanner that would also scan film. It also did a great job with Kodachrome.

Earlier models (Coolscan III & IV) do not have this option, and scanning of Kodachromes is a bit hit and miss, you often get a sort of 'crossed curves' effect and its difficult to correct the colour casts.

Gerry

[gesper]

[quote=KM-25;704399]I use a Nikon 9000ED since I scan Kodachrome from my XPan too, it works great. I use the glass holder on the panos, regular on the 24x36mm.

I have the most recent version of Silverfast Ai which really works well with Kodachrome. Silverfast as a really good grasp of maxing out dynamic range. QUOTE]

I too am using a 9000 with Silverfast (I do a fair amount of 6x9 work). Do you use the auto functions in SIlverfast, adjust it yourself in Silverfast, or send it uncorrected to Photoshop and correct it there?

[jevidon]

Attached is a very old slide from K64 taken in August 1968 of my son when he was 4 years old sitting in front of a waterfall in Yosemite. I scanned it with an Epson 4990 flatbed at 1200 and perked it up a bit with CS3. This slide, I recently discovered sitting in a box in my garage.
I really don't think you will have any problem with any of the better Epson scanners. My 4990 is several years old and doesn't even have the latest software as in their current 770 model.

BTW, I don't recall the camera but it may have been the first generation Minolta SLR; no TTL, no AF, all manual and probable with a f2 50mm kit lens.

This K64 wasn't the easiest scan, but it went pretty smoothly. I have found that scanning old Agfachrome, which I always preferred to shoot back then, produces a less satisfactory scan. Maybe the later Agfachrome scans better.

[zernikepolynom]

Originally Posted by leica dream

I have looked at the 9000 especially for my older non 35mm negatives, but I think the cost cannot be justified for the relatively small volume of old non 35mm stuff. I'll probably get those scanned professionally at somewhere like Peak Processing.
Any ideas about the best (cheapest) source of Nikon scanners in the UK?
Richard

I would advise to hurry up, if you are interested in one, Nikon seems to have discontinued their scanners and they are pretty tough to get now, at least in Germany...

Stefan

[leica dream]

I am still undecided. I have several hundred transparancies which I could scan and then buy a digital projector for viewing........and even print some I want to see. Alternatively, now I have got used to my VLUX-1 for digital images I could search out a way of transferring digital images to transparency for just those few digitals which I want to project. I cannot find any way of doing that at home at the moment, but to buy a good quality scanner to digitise my transparency stock as a one-off seems an expensive option.
Richard